OpenAI's Sora App Surpasses Million Downloads Amid Controversy and Demand for AI Video Creation

OpenAI's video generation app, Sora, has achieved significant milestones since its launch at the end of September. Within less than five days, it remarkably surpassed one million downloads, as reported by Bill Peebles, the Sora project lead, on the X platform. This achievement is notable given the app's limited availability, requiring invitations and being accessible only to North American users. Despite these constraints, Sora quickly climbed to the top of the Apple App Store charts, highlighting the burgeoning interest and demand for AI-driven video content creation.

Sora enables users to freely generate short videos from text prompts, currently available exclusively on iOS devices. The rapid download rates reflect a broader trend in AI popularity and user engagement, with Sora's performance even overtaking the initial download speed of OpenAI's well-known ChatGPT. This success places Sora among the most significant AI application releases to date, having captured public attention swiftly after its debut.

The app's rise has not been without controversy. The Hollywood talent agency CAA has raised concerns about the potential risks Sora poses to artists, particularly regarding copyright infringement. Addressing these issues, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, announced plans to integrate copyright control features that allow rights holders to manage their character usage within the app, thus proposing a revenue-sharing model with content licensors.

Meanwhile, in the AI coding landscape, OpenAI's Codex, supported by Microsoft, has been making strides against its competitor Anthropic’s Claude Code. According to data from startup Modu, Codex now boasts an adoption rate of 74.3% for coding suggestions, marginally higher than Claude Code’s 73.7%. This slight edge is partly attributed to the release of the new GPT-5-Codex model, which provided a notable performance boost over its predecessor.

Despite improvements, Codex lags behind in overall usage, accounting for 24.9% of merge requests tracked by Modu, while Claude Code has a 32.1% share. Cost efficiency plays a role; however, developers are reportedly willing to pay a premium, anticipating future reductions in pricing. OpenAI's efforts in enhancing Codex’s capabilities indicate a continued focus on developing its AI coding functions as a key area for advancing artificial general intelligence initiatives.